Surgical drape



SURGICAL DRAPE Filed May 4, 1964 INVENTORS $16410 (f Z/zO/ [ca/J A MyJe. BY

ATTORNEY,

United States Patent 3,455,302 SURGICAL DRAPE Gerald J. Liloia, NorthBrunswick, and Louis F. May, In, Old Bridge, N.J., assignors to Johnson& Johnson, a corporation of New Jersey Filed May'4, 1964, Ser. No.364,707

Int. Cl. A61g 7/04 U.S. Cl. 128-132 Y 3 Claims ABSTRACT on THEDISCLOSURE A surgical drape is constructed of two outer layers ofabsorbent facial quality paper and an intermediate layer of thin,flexible fluid impermeable plastic film. The three layers are bondedtogether only along two opposed edges so that the drape construction isextremely limp and drapable.

The present invention relates to absorbent disposable drapes and, moreparticularly, to absorbent disposable drapes impermeable to the passageof bacteria and particularly suitable for use in hospitals and the like.

In surgical practice in hospitals, clinics, doctors offices etc., thedoctor or surgeon, while working on the patient, needs a sterile area onwhich to lay instruments, dressings, and such other items with which hemay be working. The present invention is drawn to disposable surgicaldrapes which are suitable for providing such areas. The surface overwhich the drape for supplying the sterile area is placed is notnecessarily always flat.

For example the drape may be laid on a portion of the patients bed orover a part of the patient, adjacent the area being treated. Also thedrape may be laid on only a portion of a dressing cart or some othersurface smaller than the drape with the result that the drape extendsbeyond the surface. In all such situations, it is important that thedrape be sufficiently limp or drapable to conform to the underlyingsurface or to hang down over the edge of the support where larger thanthe support.

Besides being sufliciently limp to drape properly the drape should beabsorbent. The surface of the drape should also provide sufi'icientfriction that it does not slide off of the supporting surface over whichit has been placed and the drape surface should be free of lint or loosefibers that may adhere to articles placed thereon.

By having the surface of the drape absorbent, the drape will absorb anymedication or other liquid that may be spilled on it. Also, the drapemay be used as a towel or the like where desired to wipe instruments,hands, etc. However, one of the disadvantages of absorbent sheetmaterial is that once a sheet of conventional absorbent material hasbeen wetted, even though the surface of the sheet was previouslysterile, bacteria from an underlying non sterile supporting surface canthen readily pass through the wetted sheet to the upper surface thuscontaminating the same. It is accordingly an object of the presentinvention to provide absorbent sheet material suitable for use assurgical drapes through which liquids and bacteria will not pass. It isalsoan object of the present invention to provide absorbent sur-3,455,302 Patented July 15, 1969 v gical sheets which are water andalcohol impermeable and are sufiiciently limp to have good drapingcharacteristics. Another object of the present invention is to providebacteria impermeable absorbent drapes which because of their inexpensivestructure are readily disposable and which can also be used as absorbenttowels or wipes where needed. A still further object is to providebacteria impermeable absorbent surgical drapes, which are relativelynonskidding.

. Other objects and advantages of this invention will become apparentfrom the following description taken in connection with the accompanyingdrawings wherein are set forth by way of illustration and examplecertain embodiments thereof.

Referring to the drawings:

FIG. 1 is a prospective view of a drape made in accordance with thepresent invention in which a portion of the drape has been broken awayto show its respective parts;

FIG. 2 is a cross sectioned view taken along line 22 of FIG. 1; and

FIG. 3 is a prospective view of a modification of drape made inaccordance with the present invention.

Referring to FIG. 1, drape 9 contains a water and alcohol impermeablefilm 10 disposed between absorbent sheets 11 and 12. In the constructionshown film 10 is bonded by an adhesive or the like to the upperabsorbent sheet 11 on each side along bond lines 15 and .16 spacedslightly in from the edge of the film. The film 10 as shown is slightlyless in width than is absorbent sheet 11 leaving narrow margins ofabsorbent sheet materials extending beyond the side edges of film 10.Absorbent sheet 12 is of the same dimensions as absorbent sheet 11 andis adhesively bonded to absorbent sheet 11 in the film free marginalareas along adhesive bond lines 13 and 14. This construction ispreferred as it provides no bond area wherein film is bonded on eachside to the absorbent sheet material the edges thus formed are somewhatmore flexible than where the film is of the same width as the absorbentsheets 11 and 12 and an edge bond is provided in which the same portionof the film is bonded on each side to the adjacent absorbent sheetmaterial. However, this latter construction, although not the preferredform, is also included in the present invention. The insertion of theplastic film .10 which may be of polyethylene or other suitable waterand alcohol impervious film 10, provides both a fluid impermeablebarrier and a bacteria barrier in the drape. The barrier film 10 isbonded only along its edge portion to provide maximum drapability asoverall bonding of the film 10 to either one or the other of theabsorbent sheets 11 or 12 results in a substantially stiffer and lessdrapable product.

The film 10 should be formed of a material that has substantially norigidity in the thickness of film used and which in itself drapesreadily over any objects over which it may be placed. Accordingly, verythin films should be used. The film, however, should have sufiicientstrength to avoid rupture or tearing in use and should be free ofpinholes and the like through which moisture can seep with possibleresulting passage of bacteria through the drape should the same be laidon a bacteria containing surface and then wetted. Polyethylene films,for example, have been found to make excellent water and alcoholimpermeable and bacteria impermeable barriers for the drapes of thepresent inyention, particularly where used in film thicknesses ofabout0.3 to 1 mil.

It is found that as long as the absorbent sheets 11 and 12 are bonded tothe film barrier only along the edge that theinclusion of the barrierfilm has substantially no adverse'effect on the drapability of thecomposite sheet material. However, if the barrier film is bonded toeither one or both of the absorbent sheets 11 and 12 over its entiresurface a substantially stiffer product results with the'drape of theproduct being substantially impaired.-

As previously indicated the barrier film 10 is maintained quite thin toavoid adding any stiffness with resulting impairment of drapability.Accordingly there is always danger in the bonding process of rupturingor breaking the film in the bonded area. Also, where the film is formedof a thermoplastic material such as polyethylene, and heat and pressurebonding are employed because of the thinness of the film, some fibersfrom the absorbent sheets 11 and 12 may penetrate through the filmbarrier 10 in the area of bonding and act to wick fluids with anybacteria contained therein through the surgical drape. By limiting thebonding of the barrier film 10 to the absorbent sheets 11 and 12 alongthe edges of the drape any contamination which might result from abreakdown of the barrier film 10 in the areas of bonding is limited tothe edges of the surgical drape and the center part of the drape remainsfree of any possible contamination which might result from its beingwetted when lying on a contaminated surface. In order to insure thatthose using the drape will avoid the bonded zones or areas in which thebarrier film is not contained, guide lines are preferably providedmarking off the unbonded center area from the zones of bonding. Theseguide lines may either be separate lines marked on the absorbent sheetsor may be provided by using a colored adhesive for the innermost bondareas such as and 16. As the colored adhesive shows through theabsorbent sheet it acts to point out the bonded area which is to beavoided when placing articles on the drape.

Plastic films, particularly thin plastic films, tend to develop asubstantial static charge which is highly objectionable in operatingrooms and the like where inflammable anesthetic gases are used. It isfound that by enclosing the thin plastic film between two absorbentsheets, as is done in the present surgical drape, any charge which mayotherwise tend to build up on the plastic sheet is dissipated throughthe absorbent sheets between which it is contained. This avoids anychance of a buildup of static charge with possible resulting formation.

The absorbent sheets 11 and 12 are preferably formed of a facial qualitypaper. The crease retention of the paper should preferably be at aminimum to avoid unnecessary creases where the drapes are packaged infolded form rather than as unfolded drapes. Also, the absorbent sheetsshould have a relatively high friction to avoid slipping where laid onbed coverings and the like or, for example, laid on the lap of apatient. The friction or nonskid characteristics of the drape can beimproved by embossing the surface of the absorbent sheets 11 and 12 asillustrated for example at 18 in FIG. 3 of the drawings.

The absorbent sheets should also be lint free to avoid.

lint from the drape clinging to any of the instruments that may be laidthereon. Furthermore, any absorbent paper used as the absorbent coveringsheets 11 and 12 should preferably have a wet tensile strength in themachine direction of at least about 150 grams per inch to avoid tearingwhile in use.

Although any absorbent sheet material may be used which has thecharacteristics indicated we have found, to be particularly useful inpracticing the present invention, highly absorbent, finely creped facialquality papers of sufficient dry and wet strength to prevent tearingduring normal use.

In FIG. 3 is shown a modification of the surgical drape in which theabsorbent outer sheets 11 and 12 are bonded to each other around theentire drape. The bond lines 13 and 14 bond absorbent sheets 11 and 12together along the side edges and the bond lines 15 and 16 show wherethe barrier film 10 is bonded to absorbent sheet 11 as in the drape ofFIG. 1. However, the drape of FIG. 3 also contains end bonds, along bondlines 19 and 20 where the absorbent sheets 11 and 12 are both bondeddirectly to film 10. As with the drape of FIG. 1, there is a centralunbonded area which is adapted to receive surgical instruments and thelike. 1" he drape of FIG. 2 also has the absorbent facing sheets 11 and12 embossed with a fabriclike pattern 18. This not only adds to theappearance of the drape but as previously indicated, improves itsfriction characteristics.

The drape is sterilized prior to use. Where the barrier film ispolyethylene, sterilization should be carried out at temperatures belowP. which is the softening temperature of polyethylene. Accordingly,sterilization is preferably done through the use of ethylene oxidesterilization in accordance with conventional practices. Prior tosterilization the drape is packaged in a wrapper or other sealedcontainer impervious to bacteria but pervious to the sterilizing gases.The sterilized drape thus remains sterile until used.

In order to further illustrate the practice of the present invention thefollowing example is given. The example, however, is given forillustrative purposes only and the invention is not limited thereto.

EXAMPLE A drape is prepared having a structure such as that illustratedin FIG. 1. The absorbent sheets are formed of dry creped facial qualitypaper sheets having a fine crepe, a stretch of about 15 to 20%, gooddrape, an absorbency time of 11 seconds, an absorbency capacity of about13 times its own dry weight, a dry tensile strength in the machinedirection of about 1000 grams per inch, a wet tensile strength in themachine direction of 250 grams per inch and a weight of about 20.5pounds per SOD-sheet ream of 24 by 36 inch paper. The outer absorbentsheets are 17 by 29 inches and the inner barrier film is of the samelength but has a width of 16% inches. For the inner barrier film a 0.4mil thickness sheet of polyethylene film is used. The absorbent sheetsand film are secured together with adhesive in thin lines asillustrated, the width of the adhesive lines being approximately inch. Apolyvinyl acetate emulsion adhesive is employed. After formation thedrape is folded and then packaged by placing between two panels ofbacteria proof paper pervious to sterilizing gases and then sealing thepanels together around the area occupied by the drape. The package isthen sterilized by subjecting to ethylene oxide sterilization understandard sterilizing technique.

Drapes so formed, packaged and sterilized, on removing from theircontainers have excellent hand, good conformability and, although beingabsorbent, show no contamination of the upper surface by bacteriapassage therethrough either when wetted or dry when placed on a bacteriainfected surface.

Having thus described our invention, we claim:

1. An absorbent but bacteria impermeable surgical drape which is readilyconformable to the contour of the body of the patient, comprising: afirst absorbent sheet; a second absorbent sheet; and a thin water andalcohol impermeable and bacteria impermeable plastic film disposedbetween most of said first and second absorbent sheets to prevent thepassage of fluid borne bacteria from the surface of one absorbent sheetto the surface of the other absorbent sheet, said film being free ofsaid absorbent sheets in the main body of said drape to preserve theflexibility of the drape, and said film having a width less than saidabsorbent sheets, which sheets are, in turn, of substantially the samedimensions and in which said film is bonded to said first absorbentsheet along lines spaced inwardly from the edges of said first absorbentsheet, there being an edge portion of said 5 first absorbent sheet overwhich said film does not extend, said first absorbent sheet and saidsecond absorbent sheet being bonded together along a line extendingalong said edge of said first absorbent sheet not covered by said film.

2. A drape of claim 1 in which there is a visible marking to designatethe unbonded area of said drape from the bonded area.

3. A drape of claim 2 in which said film is bonded to said firstabsorbent sheet with a colored adhesive, the colored adhesive beingvisible through said absorbent sheet to form said visible marking and todesignate the bonded area of said drape from the unbonded area.

References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 2,284,944 6/1942 Bruning 161166XR 2,619,089 11/1952 SWartz 16186 XR Cooper 161151 XR Massey 161147 XRCrowe 156-148 XR Strawinski.

Blake 1282'87 Hermanson et a1 128-287 Taggart 128-296 X Ashton et a1128290 Drelich 161148 ROBERT F. BURNETT, Primary Examiner W. A. POWELL,Assistant Examiner US. Cl. X.R.

